East Samar got P800M for infra projects in 2013-2016

BORONGAN CITY, January 12, 2017–Eastern Samar has received around P800M for Payapa at Masaganang Mamamayan or PAMANA projects from 2013 to 2016.

During a meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council last Monday, Emy Bonifacio, PAMANA regional manager said that the funds are infra support to peace and order, and were used to open, improve and rehabilitate roads and bridges in isolated areas to make them accessible and connect them to the main road traversing the province.

The projects are implemented by the DPWH, and those with big allocations are the Can avid- Can ilay – Malogo – Salvacion road amounting to P272M, the Can-avid to Maslog road with P234M and the Jipapad- Imelda, Lapinig Northern Samar road with P154M and the rest are projects in Gen. McArthur and Jipapad.

According to Engr. Efren Balmes of the DPWH Eastern Samar, most of these projects have been completed, except for works in a section along the Maslog–Can-avid road, and in the Pinggan–Alang-alang road in Gen. McArthur which are still ongoing.

The work on the Jipapad bridge is still ongoing, but is being implemented by the DPWH regional office.

Acting Governor Marcelo Picardal reiterated the request of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) for the DPWH to furnish them with a straight line diagram detailing each road section from Dolores to Maslog to see which section was funded in what year and to see what areas still needs to be worked on.

Meanwhile, Ms. Bonifacio said that since the DPWH declared the projects as completed, a joint monitoring is needed to check on their completeness prior to the turn over.

Bonifacio added that it is necessary to go back to the communities to see the impact of these projects to the lives of the people.

She said that “it is good to note that Jipapad is now accessible by land transportation”.

For 2019, Bonifacio said that she is endorsing P2B worth of projects for the province and they are also pushing for the expansion of PAMANA areas

The council decided to reactivate PAMANA technical working group and the provincial government–OPAPP joint monitoring team.

PAMANA is the national government’s convergence program that extends development interventions in isolated, hard to reach and conflict affected communities, ensuring they are not left behind. (Eden Cidro/Este News)